


You Can Dance If You Want To

by soupcat



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Bitty and Jack being Good tm parents, Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Future Fic, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, teenage angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 20:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13644054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soupcat/pseuds/soupcat
Summary: Jack and Bitty try to help their daughter with all her teenage angst.  Happy, domestic, fluffy ending.





	You Can Dance If You Want To

“Bits, do you want some wine?” Jack asked as he pulled the door closed behind him and started to toe off his shoes.

“Lord knows I need it,” Bitty replied.  “Let me just take these upstairs real quick.”  With his daughter’s discarded high heels in his hands, he made his way to her room.  Apparently, the heels were  _ just for pictures _ and  _ not for the dancing, Daddy, I’d break an ankle. _

Bitty put the shoes inside Alice’s room next to her dresser. Her walls were full of photos, as she apparently seemed to take after Jack in that regard.  None of them were framed, except for the few on her desk.  Bitty looked at before heading back downstairs.  There was a picture of Alice with her best friend at their favorite concert, a band Bitty couldn’t quite remember.  Another was of their family at Jack’s last Cup Day, when she was just a toddler.

Bitty then started toward the living room where he knew his husband would be waiting

Jack was there, smiling with his arms open.  He had been retired for almost ten years now and though the rest of his body showed his age, when Bitty looked into his bright, smiling, blue eyes, it felt like they were sitting across from each other at Annie’s, still in college.

Bitty sat down, leaning into Jack.  He pulled the blankets around himself, and then slid further down the into couch, letting his head rest in Jack’s lap.  Jack wove his fingers through the familiar blond hair, following the paths he had followed a thousand times before.

“She’s getting so old, Jack”

“I know, mon petit chou.” Looking down, Jack saw Bitty’s eyes closed, tears slowly slipping out.  They made his freckles shine bright against his skin, warm no matter how hard the dark northern winters tried to dull his complexion.  He pulled Bitty up closer to his chest.

“I’m just so proud of her.  She’s so smart, and beautiful, and kind, and  _ mature. _ ”

“We did a pretty good job, eh?”  That got a laugh from Bitty, and Jack took the opportunity to wipe the tears from his face.  

“I love you sweetpea.”

“Je t'aime aussi.”

Bitty reached for the wine glasses, still untouched on the coffee table in front of them.  After taking a sip from his, he passed Jack the other.  “So, your turn to pick the movie?”

* * *

 

**_-bzzz-bzzz-_ **

**_-bzzz-bzzz-_ **

“...Hello?”

“Hi, uh, Papa? It’s me… Alice.”  She drew out her words; with a wavering voice, she sounded unsure of herself.  

“Alice! What’s wrong?”  Jack sat all the way up.  He looked around.  The movie was still playing, so he must have just fallen asleep.  He tapped Bitty, trying to wake him up.

“Nothing.  I’m fine.  I just- Could you come pick me up?”

“Alice, ma vie, are you okay?”

Bitty grabbed the phone, awake now.  He put it on speaker.  “Baby, it’s me.  What’s going on? Are you okay? Are you at the dance?”

“Daddy, I’m alright.  I’m not at the dance I- we- I’m still at the restaurant and I really would like it if one of you could come get me.  Please”

“Oh honey, of course.  We’ll be right there.”

“Thanks Papa, Daddy.  I gotta go.” -click-

They both sat there for a moment, staring at each other, eyes wide with worry before they jumped into action.  They pulled on their shoes, Bitty grabbed the keys, and they made their way to the door, Jack barely remembering to shut it on the way out.

Pulling out of the driveway, Bitty reached his hand out, searching for Jack’s which he met across the console.  Bitty drove down the street and Jack called Alice to let her know they had started the short car ride.  

“Alice, we're on our way.  I’ll meet you inside.”

“No! I’ll be outside, see you then. Bye.”

Jack was worried, but didn’t have much time to think as the restaurant was just ahead.  He saw Alice outside in her turquoise dress, her jacket around her shoulders but her bare legs exposed to the cold.  She ran to the car when she saw it pull over, and jumped into the backseat.

Bitty and Jack both turned around to face her.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” Bitty said, as Jack reached his hand out to her.

“Can we just… go home?”  She pointedly ignored eye contact and buckled her seatbelt.

“Alice,” Jack tried.

“Please.”  She looked up, tears beginning to well in her eyes.

Bitty put the car into drive.  “Of course sweetheart.”

The silence in the car was loud, and it was shocking when Alice broke it by saying, barely louder than a whisper, “It just wasn’t what I thought it would be.”  Jack turned, and she continued, her voice a little stronger.   “He was high.  My date.  Before anything even started he was already high out of his mind!” Looking down, Jack clenched his jaw.  He grew up surround by overindulgent teens and his own problems; this reminded him of it and worried him that his daughter might fall into similar patterns.

Alice didn’t notice her dad, though, and continued, laughing a little, wiping the tears from her face.  “And all he could talk about was hockey.  As if I don’t hear enough about it already!  It was just so bad.”  

Then she was quiet.  “I just wanted to have a great night.  I don’t even know why I said yes to him.  I should have just asked Alex, but I was too scared.  I mean, I’m pretty sure they liked me, too. At least a little.”

Jack and Bitty hated to see their daughter in pain.  They wanted to be able to bundle her up in bubble wrap and keep her in a tall tower for the rest of her life, away from all of life’s struggles. Despite that, they knew she had to learn to face them herself.  It didn’t mean they had to like it, though, or that they couldn’t help her when she was down.

“The dance doesn’t start for another hour, right?”  Bitty looked to Jack conspiratively.  “Why don’t we go get dinner of our own and then you can go to the dance without that clown?”

“Daddy, I can’t go alone!”

Jack took this as his opportunity to jump in.  “You wouldn’t be alone.  All your friends would still be there, even Alex.”

“Jack!”

“Heh, sorry. But you don't have to have a date to have fun!”

“I’m not sure.  I’m kind of just over the whole thing now.  Can we just go home?”  Alice turned towards the window, resting her forehead against the cool glass.

“Sure sweetie.  Of course.  We just want whatever will make you happy.”

“We love you, Alice”

She sighed.  “I love you guys, too.”

* * *

 

**_-knock knock-_ **

Jack woke up, the knocking at his bedroom door pulling him from his dreams. “Ouis?”

The door creaked open, revealing Alice standing in the crack of light.  “Papa… can I come in?”

“Of course, ma vie, come in”

She slowly made her way towards the bed before crawling in and wedging herself between Jack and Bitty, who was still asleep,  _ luckily, _ Jack thought.

Seeing there daughter was hard for both of them, but Bitty always took it the hardest.  When they came home and Alice wanted to be alone in her room for the night.  Bitty stayed up for hours in the living room, waiting, just in case she needed something.  He didn’t fall asleep until early morning, Jack gently whispering into his ear and rubbing his back.  He had to be carried to bed, or Jack at least chose to, wanting to let him rest.

“Good night, Papa.  I love you.”

“I love you too.  Good night.”  He turned to kiss her forehead, and then laid there, waiting to make sure she was able to fall asleep.  Eventually, he too could fall asleep, and it wasn’t until he heard his daughter and husband cooking together the next morning that he woke up.

 


End file.
